Tag: 08.09.06

Hitting Back At Chick Lit

Otto Penzler is fed up with Chick Lit. “Some years ago, there was a small movement to call private eye stories Dick-lit. It didn’t stick. But chick lit has, and what I don’t like is that it’s cynical. I don’t like cynicism, never have, partly because, like its cousin, pessimism, it’s too easy.There’s always reason to doubt, there’s always reason to fear the worst, but to what end? Negativism of all kinds is plentiful and, frankly, it’s getting really irritating.”

Another Russian Art Theft

There’s been another museum theft in Russia. This time it’s an archive of a famous architect’s work worth millions of dollars and stolen from a state archive. “The crime, blamed by the archive’s director on unscrupulous staff, came just more than a week after Russia’s most famous museum — the Hermitage — announced the theft over a period of years of more than 220 artworks valued at $5 million.”

That Movie… Over And Over Again

There are so many versions of movies floating around on DVD these days, it’s getting difficult for the real fan. “Anyone who really loves a particular film is going to want to own every nook and cranny of it, which means that, in some cases, you’ll have to buy the same title three or four times. At $10 to $50 each, that represents some serious bucks.”

What To Read? (A Furious Schoolyard Debate)

Britain’s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has been asked to review and update student reading lists. The “review of English teaching, English 21, launched by the poet laureate, Andrew Motion, has provoked an occasionally furious debate about the merits or otherwise of prescribing texts. Much to the QCA’s surprise, some teachers consulted are against the plan to give them more flexibility over choice of books.”

Steve Reich Turns 70 (The Man Who Made Music Cool)

There was a time when composer Steve Reich was derided for the “simplicity” of his music. But “more than any living composer, Steve Reich transformed the image of contemporary classical music from painfully abstruse to potentially cool. Vinyl remixes of his early works can be heard at many dance clubs (there’s a new set out next month from Warner).”

Critical Theory

So how much value is the average critic’s take on music? “The more I think about the process of listening to music, the more I realize that any listener’s reactions to a piece are his or her own and have little to do with the music they are listening to, at least in so far as how that music will relate to any other listener. They also vary over time. Each time you listen to something, what you are listening to is clouded both by what you’ve heard before and what you haven’t heard before. A repeated listen to a specific piece of music will never be the same as a first listen, but neither will multiple experiences to similar musical ideas in any piece be the same as that initial encounter with such an idea.”

UCalifornia Joins Google Digital Library Project

The University of California has joined Google’s massive library digitization project. “UC is the fourth major U.S. university — along with Stanford, Michigan and Harvard — to contribute at least some of their library collections to the project. The New York Public Library and Oxford University are also allowing portions of their libraries to be scanned. The mammoth project, begun in 2004, is expected to take years to complete and could cost Google tens of millions of dollars.”